In the past year, Los Angeles has dedicated billions of dollars towards housing the homeless. The effort is, in part, aimed at addressing the city’s exorbitant health-care spending on this population. Housing is now widely understood to be the best health intervention for the homeless population, who experience far more hospitalizations than those with homes. However, a critical step in this new effort is actually connecting the city’s homeless population, many of whom are very wary of services, to the these new resources. Anthony Ruffin, a Hollywood-based case worker, has identified the top 14 most vulnerable and service-resistant homeless individuals in the neighborhood and made it his personal mission to house each one of them.

This video is part of The Atlantic’s project, “The Platinum Patients,” which is a collaboration with the Solutions Journalism Network, and is supported by a grant from the Commonwealth Fund.